A study in 2007 found that the reward experienced from sweetened food surpasses the reward experienced from cocaine. In this study, rats were allowed to choose either intensely sweetened water or intravenous cocaine. Amazingly, 94% of the rats chose the sweetened drink over cocaine. The rats made the same choice whether the water was sweetened with saccharin, an artificial no-calorie sweetener, or sucrose, a natural sugar. When the rats were sensitized to cocaine and offered increasing doses of the drug, mimicking drug addiction, they still chose the sweetened water.
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